OXFORD ― Ole Miss basketball coach Chris Beard came to the podium Saturday with an apology. In fact, he came with several.

In truth, there wasn't much else he could offer. The Rebels had just been obliterated at home by Texas A&M on their senior day, 86-60. The competitive spirit on which Beard hopes to build the Ole Miss program was almost entirely absent.

"I'll be really clear here: I just want to apologize to everybody," Beard said. "I'll check with (Athletic Director Keith Carter) and see what the rules are on this, but anybody that paid money to come see this game today, I'd like you to get reimbursed. We'll check the NCAA rules on that stuff.

"Season ticket holders, I just wanna apologize. That's not the effort that you spend your time and money to come watch. I just wanna apologize to everybody, the students that stuck around, not going on spring break until tomorrow or tonight and chose to support the team today, I just wanna apologize."

The Rebels (20-11, 7-11 SEC) have lost under Beard before. They've been doing a whole lot of it lately, with Saturday's defeat marking the eighth in Ole Miss' last 10 games.

They've lost heavily, too. Road games at Tennessee and Auburn resulted in 26- and 23-point thumpings. But neither of those led to a postgame apology tour like the one Beard embarked on following this loss to the Aggies (18-13, 9-9).

Beard criticized the Rebels' lack of pride. He railed against their lack of discipline, and vowed next season to build a team that would better reflect the values he believes lead to winning.

"Basketball's a lot like life," Beard said. "It comes down to pride, you either have it or you don't. We can sit here and talk about getting outrebounded 50-10 or whatever it was. It felt like that...I don't think there's a lot of tactical basketball. I just thought this wasn't Ole Miss basketball."

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Beard was exaggerating, but not by much. The Aggies outdid the Rebels 50-21 on the glass. Texas A&M's 1.34 points per possession represented Ole Miss' second-worst defensive effort of the season. The worst came against Alabama, which has one of college basketball's most efficient offenses. The Aggies have spent most of their season failing to put the ball in the basket, despite being an elite offensive-rebounding team that constantly generates extra chances.

In short: Where effort was required, Ole Miss failed Saturday.

"I thought we were prepared," Beard said. "I thought we would play with some Ole Miss heart today and we didn't."

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Why Ole Miss basketball coach Chris Beard wants to reimburse fans